EXTRACTIVE industry pioneer of South America, Chile, has indicated its intention to lend support to the Government of Guyana when the time comes to manage the earnings from its oil industry, which is expected to get started in 2020.
Chile’s Ambassador to Guyana, Claudio Rojas made this announcement at the Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday evening during a ceremony to celebrate the visa waiver between Chile and Guyana.
The new system has a reciprocal effect which allows both Guyanese and Chileans to traverse the two countries without the use of a visa.
And, with the advent of new opportunities for trade and investment, the Chilean Ambassador has made the first step in declaring that Chile will be open to help Guyana in managing the revenue earned from its budding oil industry.
“Guyana is poised to be one of the major oil producers in the world and we want to help the country manage the industry as well as the income that it will acquire when the project comes on stream,” said Ambassador Rojas.

A report from a foreign media site, the Times, indicated that ExxonMobil- the American energy group conducting the oil exploration in Guyana- announced that it will be investing US$5 billion in the project and expects the first set of oil to be brought to market by mid-2020.
“Early rough estimates by experts of how much recoverable oil Guyana could have range to more than four billion barrels, which at today’s prices would be worth more than US$200 billion,” stated a New York Times report.
These are figures Chile is accustomed to managing said the ambassador, who pointed out that they are engaged in all aspects of the extractive industry.
“We have derived policies according to the flow of money. These are set up to ensure that everyone can feel the benefits of the income earned,” posited Rojas.
Evidence of the country’s consistent success in the extractive industry was brought to the fore by Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge. He pointed out that Chile is one of the most “stable” countries in South America.
And with high credibility in the extractive sector, their support would be welcomed by Guyana, said the minister who stated that this is just the initial stage in the step to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, although signals are coming in for support in managing some areas of the oil and gas sector, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman and ExxonMobil are still on the hunt for a refinery.
Two of their options were Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname’s oil refinery but, recent reports indicated that Suriname’s Staatsolie’s Refinery was not built to handle the type of oil that will be extracted out of Guyana.
“Their oil is a much lighter quality. Our refinery was built for the heavy oil that we have landed here in Suriname,” the Managing Director, Rudolf Elias said.
Trinidad and Tobago is allegedly in the same spot as Suriname. Exxon Mobil Country Manager Jeff Simmons had noted that the grade of oil refined in the Twin Island Republic is of a lower grade than that which was discovered offshore Guyana.
Minister Trotman had made it clear that there was no formal agreement in place for the refining of oil from the Stabroek Block with either Trinidad or Suriname, alluding to the fact that Government has hired a consultant to conduct a high-level feasibility assessment to determine whether investing in an oil refinery is a viable economic option.